SOMERSET & DORSET SURVIVORS
Tom Bright looks at what’s left of the famous cross-country route today
Fifteen miles of the old Somerset & Dorset main line between Bath and Bournemouth could be carrying passenger trains again within a couple of decades - if preservationists achieve their ambitions. Half a century after the running of the farewell trains, various schemes have materialised, local authorities are offering support, and applications for cash grants have been lodged with the Heritage Lottery Fund. Midsomer Norton, Templecombe, Shillingstone, Spetisbury, Midford… these familiar names are returning to the railway map at varying speeds as preservation groups seek to reinstate the stations, track and signalling. Some schemes face what might seem to be insurmountable adversity with little more than fierce ambition - all in keeping with the spirit of the S&D. You can still travel over much of the old route, but an endto-end journey is a long haul, either by bike or on foot.
Bath Green Park…
The northern terminus at Bath Green is a testament to the magnificence of the S&D. Although now a Sainsbury’s supermarket car park, the terminus came back to life for a single weekend when Steam Railway brought a Fowler ‘7F’ 2-8-0 back under the canopy to mark the 40th anniversary of the closure, back in 2006. It began with one of those ‘wouldn’t it be great if…” moments. Our ‘Back to Bath’ event made it the first locomotive to stand in the station since March 1966. A few minor physical obstructions were moved aside and, after calculating whether the post-closure Tarmac would take the weight of a ‘7F’ and its tender, the plan was given the go-ahead. The 13809 7F Preservation Group agreed to let its charge, No. 53809, be the engine that marked this special occasion. Senior Sainsbury’s figure Roy Watts (who is also chairman of the Bluebell Railway) and store manager Geoff Cole gave it their support. The West Somerset Railway’s retiring MD Mark Smith pledged to cover the insurance and appearance fees, and road haulier Alleley’s confirmed it was also backing the event. To minimise disruption to Sainsbury’s, everything had to take place after 10pm, after the store had closed. The track, offered by Network Rail, was to be laid under the eyes of East Somerset Railway wagon owner John Painter and local resident, S&D aficionado and North Norfolk Railway director Julian Birley. And so, at dawn on Sunday March 5 2006, ‘7F’ No. 53809 returned home. Over the next two days, thousands came to witness the spectacle. In the background was S&D photographer Ivo Peter’s Bentley, registration number NHY 581. His son Julian told us: “It was an absolutely marvellous weekend. It was thoroughly delightful to see a ‘7F’ back at Green Park”
Midford…
The first stop for trains in the Down direction from Bath was Midford. The station is owned by the New Somerset & Dorset Railway, a group that aims to re-open the entire line between Bath and Bournemouth as a modern commuter link, in the mould of the new Borders Railway. The platforms and trackbed remain intact, the latter having been paved over as part of the Two Tunnels Greenway, a cycle path that uses the old alignment between Bath and Midford via the Devonshire and Combe Down tunnels. The station’s original wooden buildings were removed shortly after closure. The group still intends to rebuild the platform
structures, but new S&D Chairman Steve Sainsbury explains that: “The work at Midford has gone flflat as key team members have gone on to other things.”
Midsomer Norton…
This is the currently the largest of the S&D revival schemes. See pages 44-47 for an in-depth feature about progress on this project.
Gartell Light Railway…
Aside from the 2ft gauge Eclipse Peat Railway that crossed the railway near Ashcott station on the Burnham branch, the S&D was standard gauge throughout. This was until the Gartell Light Railway opened in 1991. Owned by husband and wife John and Christine Gartell, the railway occupies the former S&D trackbed south of Templecombe at Yenston and extends to three quarters of a mile. Incidentally, like its peat railway forebear, the GLR also runs on 2ft gauge. Despite its small size, the GLR boasts four stations and comprehensive semaphore signalling; Pinesway Junction has an impressive four-signal overhead gantry. The GLR also has a small locomotive flfleet, with a pair of specially constructed steam engines alongside a number of diesels. The fifirst steam engine, 0-4-2T No. 6 ‘Mr G’ was built by the North Dorset Locomotive Works at Motcombe and entered service in 1998; it was named after John Gartell’s late father Alan Gartell. Its sister locomotive arrived on the railway 11 years later; 0-4-0T+T No. 9 ‘Jean’ was built by Dr Alan White and completed in the GLR’s workshops. Although ‘Jean’ is very similar in size to ‘Mr G’, it differs in having a longer footplate and tender for increased coal and water capacity.
Shillingstone…
“We’re not a functioning railway yet,” says North Dorset Railway Trust Membership Secretary Alan Wiseman - ‘yet’ being the operative word for the Shillingstone Station Project. It is unique in being the last remaining station constructed by the Dorset Central Railway (the precursor to the S&DJR) in 1863. Like many other stations on the
movement over the Radstock line for ‘engineering purposes’ coincided with a trust open day… The SDRT acquired 1929-built Peckett 0-4-0ST No. 1788, the last in the North Somerset coalfields, having worked at Kilmersdon, where open days were held. Peckett 0-6-0ST Fonmon was another acquisition. The writing was on the wall when late stalwart Mike Palmer wrote: “With the best will in the world, nobody could expect the average person to come back again and again just to ride behind a steam engine from the centre of a not particularly beautiful town, up 1¼ miles of track with a panoramic view of the local sewage works on the way and a coal tip at the far end.” As opening a mining museum at Writhlington would conflict with the trust’s constitution, the separate Somerset & Dorset Light Railway Company was set up in January 1974. A £54,000 price was initially demanded for the land and track, but the price rose sharply and out of reach. By May 1975, it was all over at Radstock, and rolling stock was marshalled for a move to the West Somerset Railway. The S&D Light Railway Co. was struck off the companies register in December 1976. Mike Palmer sums up: “The Radstock Project failed mainly through lack of financial assistance at a difficult time for the country and commerce as a whole, although there were a number of other contributory factors.” main line, little changed until the last couple of years of its life. The goods yard closed in April 1965 and then, the following month, the Down sidings were lifted. That the station survives at all is a miracle. In the 1970s, the trackbed was earmarked for a village bypass road, which, fortunately, was never built. The NDRT was formed in 1998, and the ‘First Big Clear Up’ soon got under way. The trust tried to acquire the lease of the station when Dorset County Council put it up for sale, and a 99-year lease was granted from June 30 2005. The station building and platforms are now restored, the signal box and platform shelter rebuilt, the cattle dock refurbished, and the greenhouse and garden - a celebrated feature of the former S&D stations - reinstated. The Shillingstone Railway Project has re-laid track through the station to the southern extremity of its current site, a distance of a quarter of a mile. While there is only a single line running alongside the Up platform, a carriage siding and a turnout have been installed in readiness for a run-round loop to be completed, once planning permission has been granted. The next step is, naturally, to extend the running line. As Treasurer and Carriage & Wagon Manager Ian Harrington says, the trust has “growing pains.” When the trust secured the lease, it was offered land in both directions. Ian says: “The group decided that the station building, platforms and the present track length was suffificient to cope with.” With the ‘benefifit’ of hindsight, this decision seems shortsighted and lacking in ambition, but the preservationists at Shillingstone have learnt to walk before they have tried to run. In 2015, the trust managed to rescue the Lamb House Bridge, just north of the current station site, from demolition. Ian says: “Dorset County Council has agreed a 99-year lease on the structure, but we still have to join the dots.” Restoration of the bridge will allow the railway to reconnect with Sturminster Newton which, says Ian, is “crying out for tourists… there is space in the car park (the old station yard) for a platform and the council is very keen to host us”. The ultimate ambition is to reconnect with Templecombe, creating a 12½-mile railway, but that means agreeing some sort of partnership with the Gartell Light Railway, which occupies old S&D trackbed to the south of the town. It is a little-known fact that, back in 1967, Sturminster Newton Rural Council attempted to reinstate the line between Templecombe and Shillingstone (see page 70). Another obstacle is that the most of the alignment has been converted into the North Dorset Trailway, so any track will have to run alongside the footpath and cycleway. Any ideas about extension southwards towards Blandford Forum are out of the question; cuttings have been fifilled in, the trackbed built over and the old station site is now a modern housing estate. Back at Shillingstone, the trust has acquired a prefabricated 100ft by 40ft engineering shed to go just north of the station. It is fifitted with an overhead gantry to allow restoration to begin on some recent arrivals - former
Yugoslavian ‘USA’ 0‑6‑0Ts. Owner Project 62 estimates that £25,000 is needed to overhaul No. 30075’s boiler, fifirebox and running gear. A further £50,000 is required for No. 30076, which is a longer‑term project. In 2005, Keith Bottomley’s ex‑Barry ‘9F’ No. 92207 ‘Morning Star’ arrived at Shillingstone for long‑term restoration. Although never allocated to the S&D, it marked the fifirst time a 2‑10‑0 had been seen on the former Bath‑Bournemouth cross‑country route in 40 years. It was moved to Poole three years ago.
Spetisbury…
Spetisbury is a modest station between Blandford Forum and Corfe Mullen. Downgraded to an unmanned halt in 1934, it was closed to passengers 22 years later, a decade before the S&D main line that passed through it. Unlike Shillingstone, very little survives beyond the derelict platforms and booking offifice retaining wall. The trackbed is part of the North Dorset Trailway, which has been established between Stalbridge and Spetisbury. The station remained derelict until May 2012 when a group of volunteers working under licence from landowner Dorset County Council began to clear the station site. Spetisbury Station Project spokesman Kevin Mitchell says: “It was mainly enthusiasts who got the project started, but we learned very quickly that we had to have the local community on our side every step of the way. There was some early opposition, as some villagers feared we would have trains running past their houses, and that cutting back vegetation would invade their privacy. We had to be very up‑front with our intentions, and it grew into a community‑based project from there.” Since then, rubble has been removed from the Up platform, and a seating area for visitors installed on the Down side. There is no intention to re‑lay track, and the next task will be the construction of a small timber building on the Down platform which will act as a café and information point. A longer‑term ambition is to re‑create the original buildings, and on March 6, to mark the 50th anniversary of the closure of the S&D, and the 60th anniversary of the closure of the station itself, members are displaying photographs and railway artefacts. It will also be a working day.